


Golden Starlight (In Your Eyes of Blue)

by thethingaboutashis



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Hopefully it isn't terrible, I wrote this on a whim, M/M, basically a very soft fic, calum can't believe his eyes, luke is a weirdo, post apocalyptic sorta, set in a weird future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 13,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23538946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thethingaboutashis/pseuds/thethingaboutashis
Summary: In a world where happiness no longer exists, Calum is shocked to find... Well, a happy young man.Title from They Long to Be Close to You.
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Calum Hood
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! At the beginning of December, I began writing my chapter fic, In the Shadows of Your Heart. That story is my baby but after a rough patch at the beginning of February, I stopped writing it. I was extremely depressed and unwilling to write anything new until two weeks ago, when I was suddenly inspired to write this one shot. It's mostly just this soft lil thang I wrote to get my creative juices flowing again. I hope you all enjoy it! Please leave kudos or comments if you do, because I have a few more ideas I've been meaning to bring to life.

Calum has never been happy. 

He thinks he knows what it means to be happy, from the things he’s read in the old books his grandfather left for him in a box before he passed, but he can’t really be sure. No one has been happy since The Virus spread through the world and infected everybody with The Sickness. 

He also had a vague idea of what happiness meant because of the stories his sister told him as a child. She had been four years old when The Virus ravaged the world, draining absolutely everyone of happiness, of hope and desire and all the things that were meant to make the world go ‘round. Calum hasn’t heard any of those stories in a very long time, ever since Mali-Koa turned 10 and promptly forgot how she once felt. 

Calum was born unhappy. The Virus began in November of 1995, just two months before he was meant to enter the world. Unfortunately, his mother was among the first wave of The Affected and immediately absorbed The Sickness, passing it onto her unborn child. So on January 25th, 1996, Calum came into the world sobbing and didn’t stop for days. There was no joy in his mother when she first held him, no joy in his father the first time he stopped his wailing. The only one who felt anything positive at his birth was Mali. It was different for her because she was a child. Most children contracted   
The Virus in the last wave, a little past a year after it began. By the end of December of 1996, there were no longer The Happy and The Affected. There remained only The Affected, and so there was no longer the need for the differential terms. 

Calum had grown up an Affected. He remembers the first time he rode a bicycle, remembers how it didn’t feel wonderful the way he read it would. There was no feeling, only doing. It was the same when he first ate ice cream, when he first flew a kite. Nobody around him did those things anymore, knew it was just a waste of time because they would get nothing from it. But for years, Calum tried. He jumped on his bed, he mixed homemade bubbles from the dish soap under the kitchen sink and blew them into the wind, watched them glimmer green and purple as they blew away. But there was nothing. He tried smiling in the mirror, but it was always quick to turn into a grimace. It just looked so _wrong_ , knowing it was meant to happen whenever he felt glee. He couldn’t feel glee, so he shouldn’t smile. 

Calum tried kissing girls and when that did not work, he tried kissing boys. And although the latter felt right, it did not feel good either. So he was probably gay, but it did not matter, because lovers were meant to make you feel happy and nobody felt that anymore. At least he wouldn’t have to participate in The Replenishment, which was the government’s method of choosing the right men and women to copulate and continue to populate the world. Despite people’s inability to feel joy, the government was not cruel, and it did not force homosexuals to make more people. If you asked Calum, however, he was sure they avoided using the gays in fear that they would only produce more people with their preferences. 

In short, Calum has never been happy.


	2. Chapter 2

Luke is a fluke. 

He reminds himself of this every single day as he sits by his bedroom window, face pressed against the covered glass to feel the temperature from outside. There has been an assortment of papers taped over it throughout the years, from wrapping paper to foil to old magazine pages, anything to keep him from looking outside. When he was a child, he would rip it off and peek, but his parents always caught him, slapped him on the wrist, and covered it up again. 

He wasn’t allowed out of his room, ever. 

See, Luke was an abnormality. He was born approximately 8 months after The Virus began. His mother had just found out she was pregnant with her third child when news about The Sickness began floating around. At first, nobody understood what was going on. Why was the world suddenly so sad? It didn’t make any sense until the doctors put a name to it, communicated to the world that The Sickness was a real thing. That one day in the very near future, you would wake up completely devoid of happiness. When that happened, you would be deemed an Affected. If you were lucky, you wouldn’t catch it but at the rate it was spreading, it seemed very unlikely that you could avoid it. And no one did. Everybody caught The Sickness a year and a month after The Virus began spreading. By the end of December 1996, the world was depressed. There was no joy, no love, no happiness. 

At 8 and a half months old, during feeding time with his mother, Luke giggled. 

His mother had jumped back in shock, the spoon of baby food falling from her hand as a barely toothy Luke smiled, chubby hands reaching out to grab her. She watched in horror as he continued to fuss, letting out little giggles as he squirmed in his seat. She had cried out for her husband, and he too watched as little Luke laughed away.

The very next morning, his parents strapped him into his carrier and drove him to the hospital. They told the doctor that something was wrong, that he had laughed and they couldn’t understand why. The doctor did a checkup, a frown on his face as Luke looked up at him and giggled. 

“He’s a Happy,” the doctor grunted. 

His parents nearly had a heart attack at that. There were no known Happies out there, not anymore. The last one was infected two days after Christmas. They knew they had to take him home and hide him from the world, lest the doctor tried to keep him to run studies on him. His parents didn’t love him, they scientifically couldn’t, but he was still their son. They had an instinctual need to protect him, so his dad scooped him up and raced back home the minute they reached their car. 

When they got home, his parents grabbed some old wrapping paper left in forgotten present bags and used it to cover the window of his nursery room. When they were sure no light could get in, they gently placed him in his crib. They watched with mournful gazes as he kicked his little legs out, smiling up at them with crinkly eyes.

In short, Luke is a fluke.


	3. Chapter 3

If Calum had to describe the way he felt every day, the best he could come up with would be “my heart feels heavy.” 

There really was no other way to explain it, as best as he tried. He was always awake long before his morning alarm rang. He stared up at the ceiling, watching the blades of the fan spin incessantly. He let the first few notes of the alarm ring before he reached his hand out to grab for his phone blindly, switching it off. He sighed deeply before slowly sitting up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.  
He sat in silence while the terribly empty feeling washed over him. Every morning was the same. His insomnia kept him up, his anxiety woke him. The dreaded Sickness settled in his bones as soon as it was time for him to start his day. It was like clockwork, really, the way his sadness creeped in daily, as sure as the sunrise. 

He was used to it, though. It had been with him all his life.

He climbed out of bed, going through his daily morning routine on autopilot. Shower, dress, skin care routine, brush teeth, deodorant, cologne, out of the restroom. Toast, coffee (black, like his mood), washing his used dishes, picking his backpack up from wherever he left it the day before, and walking to school. 

He lived close enough to the university to be able to walk there, and he did so every day. When he was younger, he walked everywhere in hopes that something would put a spring in his step, a bit of joy in his dull life. 

Nothing ever did. 

He trudged into his study hall, taking his usual place at the back and firing up his laptop. It was brand new, an expensive model he had picked up. The advertisement claimed it was the newest and best technology at the time, and Calum purchased it in hopes that it would make him feel something. But it didn’t, of course. Neither did his ridiculously expensive phone loaded with all the latest games and music albums. 

Not that they were very new either. People had stopped making music around the time Calum was 8, once-brilliant artists defeated at the fact that their music did nothing for themselves or their fans. In fact, many of them had lost their lives prematurely over the years due to the everlasting sadness that consumed them and the rest of the world. 

Calum sat in the back of his psychology class. Along with all the fiction books his grandpa had left him, he had also left behind a lot of his old textbooks. Aside from the idea of what happiness felt like that Mali gave him, the vague understanding of how and what made someone happy he had learned from an old psychology textbook that had been buried at the bottom of the book box. 

This class wasn’t about that. When society realized they would never feel joy again, the curriculum of the schools changed. There was no need to teach students about those things because they simply weren’t relevant to the way the world functioned now. Instead, psychology classes were about The Sickness and how The Virus had managed to spread as fast as it did. Teachers and professors explained the way The Sickness changed everything about the human brain, how it managed to rewire a person’s very core regardless of their age and health status. There were also many courses taught about crime and what could push an Affected to commit the heinous acts they did- spoiler alert: criminals nowadays did whatever they could to _feel_. 

Calum took notes accordingly, zoning out every now and then to doodle on the painting app he had downloaded on his laptop. That was Calum’s thing, art. He drew all the time, made paintings that could be described as beautiful. In another world, art would be Calum’s passion. It would be the one thing that drove him, the career he would pursue and absolutely crush, making people all over the world feel wonder at. But this was not that world, and Calum couldn’t make a living from something so pointless. So he was studying to be a teacher instead. 

When class finished, he packed his laptop away and began the walk back home. He was almost there when he decided to swing by the neighborhood park. It wouldn’t do much for him, but it couldn’t hurt either. He climbed the hill towards the swings. He had seen in movies how hard children laughed on them, begging their parents to push them harder so they could swing faster and higher. He rode them whenever he could, closing his eyes and pretending that the race of his heart was joy and not his body’s natural response to the unsteadiness that swinging brought. 

He made it to the top of the hill and was instantly shocked still. 

There was someone on the swings, moving back and forward like the pendulum on a clock at an alarmingly fast pace. That wasn’t particularly odd, as Calum had come across people at the park every now and then.

But the young man on the swings was making a noise, loud, consistent with the rise and fall of the swing. It wasn’t a scream, a howl, or some sort of protesting.

No, by its very definition…

It was a laugh.


	4. Chapter 4

If Luke had to describe the way he felt every day, the best he could come up with would be “a joyful sense of loneliness.”

He liked to describe everything as joyful because he was lucky enough to actually feel it. It was probably because it was such a rarity in modern society, but Luke genuinely found the beauty and happiness in even the simplest of things. He was restricted to his room every second of the day, but he always found a way to enjoy his life. He had a favorite movie- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, one of the last films that had been created before producers gave up on creating content that couldn’t be enjoyed. He had a favorite book as well, Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans. It had been published 14 years after he was born and he had read it the very day it was released, having read the author’s previous work. 

Richard Paul Evans was a Hopeful, one of the few still left years after The Virus had struck everyone. Hopefuls were people who believed there was a cure for The Sickness, that it could somehow be reversed and people would be able to feel happiness again. Luke liked Hopefuls because, as someone who had only ever felt happiness, he wished with all his heart that their wishes came true. He wanted everyone else to feel what he did, for the Affected to restore their faith in everything good and the ones who had been born into the contaminated world to experience joy for the first time. 

But despite enjoying movies, books, old video games, music, and the ratty joke handbook he had that somehow still made him laugh, Luke couldn’t help but feel lonely. Being the only Happy still alive was hard because everybody he knew either resented him or ignored him. By everybody, he meant his parents and two brothers, Ben and Jack. Nobody else knew of his existence. He had spent his entire life at home, hidden away in his room. Around the time he turned 5 and became aware of the fact that no one in his house ever laughed or smiled, he began questioning them. His brothers snarled at him, shoved him away, ignored him. His dad looked at him with what Luke later learned to identify as distaste, never answering any of his questions. It was his mother who finally explained everything to him. She told him about The Virus and how everybody else in the world had The Sickness.

“But why can I laugh, mommy?” he had asked in confusion.

His mother, in frustration, had yelled back “Because you’re not normal, Luke! You’re a fluke, you’re not wired the right way!”

At 5 years old, Luke realized what “normal” meant, and he then understood that it was something he was not.

That same day, his parents moved him from his bedroom on the second floor of their home up into the attic. It was dark and dusty but little Luke made it work. This is where he found everything that brought him joy, boxes of books, records, movies, toys, puzzles, all sorts of entertaining things. A week later, his mother had entered his new room with a muttered apology and something called a laptop. She sat on the edge of his bed stiffly as he hovered over her shoulder, eyes wide in awe as she showed him how to use it. She explained to him that the machine would teach him to read and eventually write, as well as basic math, science, and history- history that could better explain the world before The Virus. 

And so Luke was a beautifully brilliant mess of a young man, raised almost entirely by his laptop and the hundreds of books lining his bedroom walls that he had collected over the years. His parents put money in a card for him every month and allowed him to order things online as long as he didn’t overspend and kept to himself. He wasn’t allowed to have social media, but that didn’t matter because hardly anyone used it nowadays. He had tried writing to a pen pal when he was around 12 but it didn’t stick because…

Well, because the other person was never amused by his jokes. 

Luke was contemplating all of this on this particular day when he heard his mother’s voice faintly from the first floor. 

“Andrew, Jack, let’s go! We have to leave now if we want to beat the traffic rush,” she yelled at the men she actually interacted with before calling out to Luke. “We’re going to the grocery store, Lucas! We’ll be back soon!”

Luke didn’t bother responding because there was no point in doing so. Instead, he rushed to the window when he heard the front door slam and pressed his forehead to the window, shutting his eyes and imagining he could see his family getting into their car and taking off, pretending he was sitting in the backseat with Jack as well.   
It was in that moment when something inside Luke snapped.

He opened his eyes, staring at the covered window while determination slowly flooded his whole being. Before he could allow himself to hesitate, he grasped the corner of the old wrapping paper and yanked at it, quickly pulling it off the window completely. Luke practically hissed when the bright lights of the outside world bathed him and his room in their glow. He stepped back, paper falling from his shaking hands as he realized what he did.

Mother would surely kill him, he thought. 

But this was his chance. He knew grocery shopping always took his family a few hours because they always stocked up enough to avoid having to go again for at least a month. Scared of changing his mind, Luke grabbed his shoes from under his bed and quickly wiped the dust off them with the palm of his hand, tugging them on and doing them up as fast as he could. They were tight from lack of use, practically brand-new despite having ordered them two years ago. He grabbed a pair of sunglasses from his desk (an ironic purchase, knowing he’d never need them, just to make himself laugh) and rushed downstairs. 

When he made it to the landing, he took a minute to try and remember where everything was. He hadn’t been downstairs since the day his parents moved him into the attic, and suddenly being there felt like exploring a whole new world. He found his way to the front door, gripping the knob and taking a deep breath.

This is it, he thought. This is the world outside my bedroom.

He twisted the knob, pushing the door open and stumbling out into the real world. 

He was instantly met by a crisp fresh breeze and the glorious warmth of the sun on his skin.

The smile that made its way onto his face was so wide, it was almost painful. 

Luke looked around, head spinning from side to side as he tried to take it all in. He had been outside as a child, but never out of his backyard and never for more than a few minutes at a time to ensure the neighbors didn’t see his smile or hear his little laugh. But this, being on the street completely unsupervised, was an absolute first. He had no idea where he was going but boy, was he going. He began to run, long legs thumping the pavement, thin arms swing awkwardly by his side as he put all the speed he could muster behind it. 

He ran and ran until he came up to a sign that promised a park just up the hill before him. He climbed it, heart pounding in his chest as he worked harder than he ever physically had in his life. When he made it to the top, he hunched over with his hands on his knees, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. He looked back up and practically twitched with glee when he saw the shiny swing set a few meters in front of him. He ran to it, squeezing into the seat that was made for people much smaller than himself and immediately kicking off. 

He was swinging and he couldn’t believe it.

He had seen children do it in old films, read about how it would feel in his books, but those descriptions were nothing compared to how it really felt.

His heart felt light in his chest, floating along the same way he was. As he gathered speed, he allowed the giddiness to seep from his bones, laughing loudly as he almost reached the clouds and then fell back away. 

He had been at it for a few minutes when he heard a thump from somewhere to his left. He stopped laughing and turned, eyes stopping on a young man standing at the top of the hill, backpack evidently dropped to his side. 

Luke smiled as he slowly stopped swinging, standing up on wobbly legs as his mind quit spinning and the adrenaline in his blood settled.

“Hello!” he called out to the boy. He watched as the stranger took a step back, stumbling a bit as he moved way too close to the edge of the hill for Luke’s comfort. Still, he said nothing, so Luke spoke again.

“Careful there, you look a second away from passing out and rolling downhill,” he joked, poking his tongue out and gripping it with his teeth. He saw the boy’s eyebrows shoot up, an incredulous look overcoming his face. He started walking towards Luke and now that Luke could better make out the features on his face, he felt a little nervous.

When the boy came to a silent stop just a few feet away from Luke, the latter was able to really get a look at him. He was a handsome young man, if the men Luke had seen in movies and videos were anything to go by. He was tall, almost as tall as Luke was, with caramel colored skin and dyed blonde hair in a messy tuft on his head. His eyes were small and crinkled in confusion, pretty pink lips set in a frown. 

_A handsome man, indeed_ , Luke thought to himself.

He realized he was staring when the other boy cleared his throat awkwardly, so Luke giggled and stuck his hand out in greeting.

“Hi, nice to meet ya! I’m Luke,” he said, smile faltering slightly when the other didn’t take his hand. He pulled it back, letting it hang limply by his side.

“Is that- is that not how you greet someone? Sorry if that was weird, I don’t ever meet new people. I’m sorry, I thought that’s how it was done, from what I’ve seen in movies. But I suppose those are all extremely outdated, which could explain why you rejected me just now. I don’t know how else to say hello, is there a new way? I’m a quick learner, self-taught in just about every subject. I’m sure I could lear-“

“Jesus, relax. It’s not that deep,” the other guy finally spoke, shaking his head with a bewildered expression on his face. 

Luke’s shoulders sagged a bit, embarrassed at the fact that the other guy probably thought he was a fool. He shook it off, plastering another smile on his face.

“Not Jesus, only Luke!” he tried again.

The other boy frowned.

“I know your name isn’t Jesus, it’s a figure of speech. It’s like saying-“

Now it was Luke who interrupted the other mid-speech. 

“I know, I was only kidding!” he laughed. He watched as the other boy looked shocked yet again.

“Are you- are you laughing? Is that what that sound is?” 

“Why, yes. That’s what that sound is,” Luke responded.

“But… why would you pretend to laugh? That’s weird,” the other stated matter-of-factly.

Luke was taken aback by that statement. He knew other people didn’t laugh, couldn’t since The Sickness had infected them, but why would anyone pretend to laugh? That itself would be weirder than genuinely laughing. Luke tilted his head to the right, much like the puppies in movies did, and replied.

“Who says I’m pretending?” 

“You have to be. No one here laughs, only ones who can are Happies and there aren’t any of those left. They all became Affected in-“

“1996? Yeah, all except one,” Luke butted in with a shy smile.

The other boy took a step closer at that, which Luke wasn’t expecting. He could smell him now, a sweet smell he assumed was cologne. He had read descriptions about different scents before but there wasn’t much to go by in his room. He knew his room smelled like lemons because that’s what the can of disinfectant he used on his drawers and nightstand said and that he himself smelled like cherries from the moisturizing cream he got off Amazon. He couldn’t help but wonder if the smells were accurate, and he wanted to know.

“Tell me, stranger, do I smell like cherries?” 

Silence. 

“Uh, yeah. You do. But wait, you said ‘all except one.’ Are you saying that you’re a Happy? Cause that would be impossible. There are no documented cases of Happies anymore.”

“That’s because no one ever documented me, sir. But please, do tell me your name?” Luke questioned. 

“’m Cal. Calum. Why do you talk like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re from another time or something, all old-fashioned like.”

“I don’t know, I’m not allowed to interact with anybody. I’m not sure I know how to.”

“What, like ever?”

“Like ever. You’re the first person I’ve met in 23 years.”

The stranger looked unbelieving. 

“23 years? How old are you then?”

“23. I was diagnosed a Happy when I was 8 months old and my parents have kept me hidden away since then,” Luke said sadly, a bit of his constant joy fading at how unfair and ridiculous that sounded. 

“That’s… depressing. And I’m already depressed as is.”

Luke snorted at that.

“You made a joke! I thought Affecteds couldn’t do that,” Luke cheered.

Calum shook his head at that.

“I wasn’t joking.”

Luke harrumphed. 

“Well, it sounded like a joke to me. Pretty funny, too. Also, can we sit or something? I’m growing tired of standing,” he complained.


	5. Chapter 5

Calum watched as Luke stared at him expectantly, waiting for his request to sit to be fulfilled. 

He was at a total loss for words. Here, in front of his eyes, was a Happy. Luke had the ability to feel happiness. Even though Calum couldn’t find the humor in Luke’s jokes, he recognized them as that, recognized how he was hoping to make Calum laugh. 

“We can sit, yeah.”

Luke smiled, immediately turning around and heading for the swing set again. He sat in one of them and patted the seat of the one next to it, offering Calum a… kind grin?

Calum could barely tell but if the old Polaroids he had of his parents and Mali-Koa hidden beneath his bed were anything to go by, this was what seeing a kind smile up close was like.

He took his spot next to Luke, turning to face the blonde boy.

He was very attractive, Calum could tell. Luke was a few inches taller than him, with curly dirty blonde hair and starlight in his blue eyes. There were intense in the way they bore into him, but Calum supposed that if he had never met anyone else other than his family, he too would be oddly fervent. And that brought him back to reality.

“Okay so, you have literally been hidden away since you were a baby. What about going outside and what not? Surely you were allowed to do that?” Calum questioned. 

Luke shook his head, a sad little pout forming on his red lips. 

“Not since I was five. Before that, I was allowed to play in the backyard every now and then but as I got older and began asking questions, my parents locked me away in the attic of our home. I haven’t seen my brothers in years. I know the older one, Ben’s his name, moved away a while back. Jack still lives at home, but he never comes up to chat or anything like that. Dad avoids me too, I don’t think he likes me very much. Mom feeds me every day but doesn’t offer much interaction either, just leaves my meals by the door, my washed clothes in the hamper next to it as well. My only friends are… well, the characters in the books I read. My bestest friend is Harry Potter.”

Calum shook his head at that.

“It’s best, Luke. Not bestest.”

Luke huffed, seemingly chiding himself.

“My mistake. Like I said, I don’t interact with anyone. Sometimes my grammar is a bit off.”

“That’s okay, Luke. But I have another question.”

“Go ahead,” Luke said.

“Why are you here now if you’ve been locked up all your life?” 

Calum almost immediately regretted asking because the look that came across Luke’s face was one of worry and fear. He shot up off the swing and took a few steps forward and then back, beginning to pace right in front of Calum. Calum let him do so for a few minutes, watched as Luke’s hands wrung in front of his chest, rubbing at his fingers while tugging his bottom lip with his pearly white teeth. When it looked like Luke was about to start eroding the ground beneath him away, Calum spoke up.

“Luke? Are you okay?”

“No. I’m not okay.”

Calum raised an eyebrow in question and waited for Luke to speak again.

“I mean, yes, I’m okay. Right now, I’m happier than I’ve ever been, sitting here with you. But I wasn’t supposed to leave home and I think I need to go back before my parents arrive and realize I left.”

Calum felt a pang of sadness thrum through his heart. 

_Huh_ , he thought, _didn’t think I could get any sadder._

“Well then you better be off, Luke. It was, erm, nice meeting you,” he muttered, uncomfortable with just how upset Luke leaving really made him feel. The ache lessened when he looked up and found Luke smiling down at him, a warm and wide grin just resting on his face.

“It was absolutely wonderful meeting you, Calum. Nice doesn’t even begin to cut it.”

Calum watched as Luke walked away, long arms dangling at his side. He was about to disappear down the hill when he stopped and turned yet again, calling out to Calum.

“Hey Cal, would you like to exchange numbers?”

Numbers?

“What for, Luke?”

“Well to be friends, of course! That’s a silly question,” Luke called back, a small giggle accompanying his words.

Calum stood from the swing, slowly approaching Luke. When he was a few feet away from him, he stopped.

“I don’t have any friends, Luke. It’s hard to have them when you don’t feel anything for them. I only have acquaintances, classmates and such,” he explained.

Luke pouted, looking down at the ground. Calum didn’t know how it felt to like something, but he knew what not liking it was like. And this, watching the way his words made Luke upset, he definitely did not like.

“I can’t offer you much, but I suppose I can try. Give me your cell, I’ll save my number on it.”

Luke looked back up, positively beaming at that. 

Calum watched as the young man standing in front of him fumbled in his pockets for his cellphone, pulling it out quickly with spidery thin fingers. He handed it over to Calum, the tip of his pink tongue poking out between his teeth and his eyes crinkled at the corners. 

Cute. Luke was cute.

After saving his number on his phone, Calum handed it back. He had just placed it in Luke’s hand, about to drop it there, when Luke grasped his hand and tugged him towards his chest, enveloping him tightly in a hug. Calum was dumbstruck, unaware of how to react to that.

“Uh, Luke?”

Luke hummed a response, breath warm on Calum’s ear.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m hugging you, Cal. Hug me back please.”

Calum did as he was told, albeit confused. They stayed that way, embracing one another, until Luke finally pulled away.

“Thank you for that. I haven’t been hugged since… well, since ever,” he said quietly.

“Me either, Luke. What did it feel like?”

Calum wished he could experience the feeling as well when Luke described it as “marvelous.”

After that, Luke took off and Calum stood at the top of the hill long after the other disappeared.


	6. Chapter 6

Luke made it home approximately seven minutes before his parents and brother did. 

He ran up the two flights of stairs to his room, slamming the door shut behind him and hurrying to find something to cover his window back up. In his haste to get out of the house, he had torn the wrapping paper to shreds. It simply wouldn’t do anymore. 

He dropped to his belly beside his bed, rummaging underneath it to reach some very outdated newspapers. It was another one of his ironic little habits, reading and collecting the morning paper as if he could ever interact with the outside world, as if he couldn’t just read about it online. He grabbed a few, tearing the pages from one another and rushing to tape them up against the warm glass. He had just finished taping up the last piece, efficiently shutting out all the natural light, when he heard his family’s car honk as his parents locked it and entered the house.

He walked in familiar darkness to where he knew the light switch was, flipping it and bathing his room in the warm glow of the single lightbulb that didn’t do much to brighten things for him. He made his way to his bed, plopping down on it and finally letting the reality of what he had done set in. 

He had gone outside. 

He had made a friend. 

He had made a handsome friend that wanted to talk to him. 

Luke grabbed the pillow from under him and placed it over his face, clutching it tightly and squealing into it. 

Luke had made a friend. Calum had approached Luke, had asked him questions and listened to what he had to say, had given him his number so they could keep talking.

Luke had Calum’s number but Calum didn’t have Luke’s.

He dropped the pillow, sitting up to pull his phone out of his pocket. He clicked on Calum’s contact (Cal H., no emojis) and typed out a text.

**Hello, Cal H. Luke here. Just wanted to thank you again for accompanying me on my first trip out into the real world! Hope to see you again soon 😊**

He placed the phone down beside his head, staring up at the ceiling happily as he waited for a response.  



	7. Chapter 7

Calum had sat at the park for a few hours after Luke left but made it home just in time for dinner. 

He walked in, dropping his backpack by the front door and making his way into the kitchen. He found his mother by the stove, evenly distributing rice and stew meat on to four plates.

“Hi, mom. Mali coming over today?” he asked along with his greeting.

His mother nodded, not bothering to say anything back.

Calum stood there, waiting for her to at least turn and face him. When she didn’t, he sighed deeply, heading towards his room at the back of the house instead. 

He shut his bedroom door quietly, heading towards his closet to grab a pair of fluffy sweats and a hoodie to change into. As he did so, he thought back on the events of the day. 

He had met a Happy.

The Happy wanted to be his friend.

He wanted to be the Happy’s friend despite not knowing how to do that. 

Calum sat at the edge of his bed, replaying every one of Luke’s words in his mind. How had this strange young man managed to not get The Sickness as a child? And why did his parents, knowing they were living with a proper miracle, decide to keep him locked away? It wasn’t even the fact that they were hiding the one person that could potentially help doctors find a cure that was bothering Calum. 

No, it was the fact that they were hiding Luke from the world. 

Calum didn’t know love but Luke did, and he deserved to know the entire world. 

He was still contemplating this when he got a text message alert. He grabbed his phone out of the pocket of his discarded jeans and felt his heart thud a little harder at the message from the unsaved number.

**Hello, Cal H. Luke here. Just wanted to thank you again for accompanying me on my first trip out into the real world! Hope to see you again soon 😊**

He scoffed at the little smiley face at the end. Even in messages, this wonder of a man smiled. It was silly and Calum knew that if he could feel endearment…

He absolutely would.

**You don’t need to thank me, Luke. It was very interesting talking to you. And thank you for the hug. I’m sure in another life, I would’ve found it just as marvelous as you did. Hope to see you soon as well.**

Calum hit the send button just as he heard Mali’s voice floating down the hallway, signaling her arrival. He set his phone down on his bedside table and went out to greet her and have the usual quiet and dull dinner with his family.

Only this time, it felt less dull thanks to a certain blonde boy on his mind.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Hey Cal_ **

**Yes, Luke?**

**_Why was the frog having a hard day?_ **

**What frog?**

**_Just any frog, Calum._ **

**I don’t know, why?**

**_Because his car got toad_ **

**What?**

**_Toad, Cal. Like TOWED_ **

**Frogs can’t drive, Luke**

**_You can’t hear me, Cally, but I’m sighing deeply.  
I know they can’t drive, it’s a joke!_ **

**Oh.  
I think even if I could laugh, I wouldn’t laugh at that. That was terrible**

**☹**

**Sorry Luke**

**_It’s okay, Cal. I have a better one_**  



	9. Chapter 9

It had been approximately three weeks since Luke met Calum. They had been texting every day since then, Luke trying his best to make Calum feel something good and Calum apologizing when it didn’t work. Luke did everything. He sent Calum his best puns and funny pictures, told him about all the things that made him happy and the things he wanted to experience if he ever got to be in the real world. 

He was in the middle of typing a really shitty joke out when his phone screen lit up with a picture of Calum’s face ( ** _Send me a selfie so I can set it as your contact picture._ No. _WHy nOT???_ Because I don’t take “selfies”. _Well then take one now!_ FINE. Attachment: 1 Image. _Tenks Cally 😊_ Go away Luke.**).

Calum was calling Luke. 

Luke squealed in excitement. Despite their constant communication via text, they hadn’t spoken on the phone yet. Luke gave himself a second to regain his composure before picking up. 

“Y’ello?”

“Yellow what?”

Luke sighed. 

“Hi, Cal. What’s up?”

The line was silent for a minute before Luke heard Calum clear his throat and speak up.

“Nothing, I just… Wanted to hear your voice, I think.”

Bless Luke’s little heart and the way it stuttered at that. 

“Oh, is that so? Why did you want to hear it?”

“I don’t know. I just did. Wanted to make sure you weren’t just part of some awfully long dream I had, I suppose,” Calum said through the line. Luke practically swooned at that. He knew Calum didn’t mean it the way Luke hoped he did, but a boy could dream, right?

“You think I’m dreamy, Cal?”

“Yes,” Calum breathed. 

And now Luke was literally swooning, at a loss for words. Calum took the hint and spoke again.

“I just can’t believe you exist, you know? I genuinely thought Happies were extinct, never would’ve imagined that I would meet one. And you try so hard to make me feel things, right? You do your best and even though I can’t help not reacting the way you want me to, it breaks my heart that I can’t give that to you. I can’t make you happy and that breaks my-“

“Wait what?” Luke interrupted. 

“What what?” Calum asked.

“Chicken butt?” Luke responded.

“Luke?”

“Nothing, forget that. But what in the world makes you think you don’t make me happy? You’re the one thing that makes me happiest, Cal. Truly. Just like you thought I didn’t exist, I never could’ve fathomed meeting a person who tried his best to take interest in me, who let me try all my corny jokes on them and told me exactly how terrible they are. You make me so, so happy, Calum… erm, you know what I just realized?”

“What’s that?” Calum inquired. 

“I don’t know your full name yet,” Luke giggled back.

“You don’t, do you? And I don’t know yours.”

“Well, spit it out!” Luke cried impatiently.

“My full name’s Calum Thomas Hood. What about you?”

Luke clapped at that, imagining he looked like a seal of sorts.

“Beautiful. Thomas suits you so well. Mine is Luke Robert Hemmings. Sometimes when my mother is in a particularly bad mood, she calls me Lucas but that isn’t my actual name. Just Luke here.”

“Robert,” Calum replied, and Luke could picture his pensive face, letting the Happy’s middle name roll off his tongue. 

“Sounds like a melody when you say it like that, Cally,” Luke said with a heartfelt little sigh. 

“A melody? What, like a song?”

“Like the prettiest of songs, really,” Luke said.

He heard Calum hum on the other end. 

After that, they continued their conversation, talking about everything and nothing at once. As lovely as it was for Luke, he wished he could light the same level of excitement in Calum that Calum lit in Luke. He wanted with all his heart and soul for Calum to feel love as deep as the ocean.  
Luke would do it. He would make Calum happy.

“Hey Cal, do you have any plans tomorrow?” Luke asked, shamelessly interrupting whatever Calum had been rambling about. He always listened carefully, clung to every word Calum had to say, but right now this seemed more important.

“Not really, just have some homework I have to do. Why?” Calum asked.

Luke didn’t want to second-guess himself, riding the small wave of determination out before it faded. 

“Come over. We can watch movies, listen to music. We can just be,” he exhaled, the last word coming out in a small whisper.

“What about your parents and your brother?” Calum asked, hesitation and curiosity filtering in through the line.

“I’ll figure that part out. Just be ready for my message, yeah? Once you’re here, it won’t matter if they return ‘cause they never come up to my room anyways. Say yes?”

“Yes,” Calum said firmly.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”


	10. Chapter 10

Calum was on the edge of his seat all day, glancing down at his phone every few minutes in anticipation of Luke’s message. As he waited, he let himself contemplate what had been on his mind since the moment he and Luke had hung up the night before. 

Something had changed in Calum after he expressed how he felt about being friends with Luke. It was like a small fire had been lit in the very bottom of his heart, at the very back of his mind. It wasn’t happiness, it wasn’t love…

It was hope.

So Calum had gone online to search the definition of a Hopeful, compared the way he was feeling to the descriptions written by other Hopefuls on their blogs and in interviews. The similarities were eerie, and Calum came to an astonishing realization. 

Calum was now a Hopeful.

It wasn’t nearly as good as being a Happy, but it was better than being nothing but an Affected. At least this way, he could better comprehend what Luke was constantly trying to offer him. He wouldn’t be happy, not in the long run, but he could be slightly better for Luke.

And there was nothing Calum wanted more than to be good for Luke.

His phone beeped and he scrambled to grab it from his bedside table. 

**Come over! 😊**

Calum jumped up, slipping on his Vans and bolting out the door. 

“I’m heading out ma, don’t know what time I’ll be back!” he called out, not waiting for a response. He slammed the front door behind himself, beginning to run down the street. He was halfway down the block when he skidded to a halt. 

_No fucking way_ , he thought to himself as he pulled his phone from his pocket. He clicked the call button beneath Luke’s name and almost shouted as soon as Luke picked up.

“I have no idea where you live!” 

Calum huffed when Luke began laughing, loud and obnoxious, except Calum could never find him obnoxious. 

“I never got around to sending you my address, did I? Sorry, Cally! Lemme do that now,” Luke giggled, not giving Calum time to respond before hanging up. The address came in with an x at the end and   
Calum’s hope flared at the idea of a kiss. 

He plugged the address into the GPS on his phone and began running again, arriving just a few minutes later. He shot Luke a message to let him know he was outside and watched as the front door swung open two seconds later.

There was Luke dressed in grey sweatpants and a cream-colored hoodie, long thin feet bare on the hardwood floor. He offered Calum a wide smile, wagging a finger to beckon him inside. Calum did as was requested of him, following Luke as he swiftly rushed up two flights of stairs. He opened a door at the landing, stepping aside for Calum to walk in first.

“It’s not much but it’s home,” Luke mumbled. Calum could sense he was nervous at having someone in his room. He looked around, taking in the twin-sized bed, the wardrobe, the desk cluttered with puzzle boxes and other knickknacks, and most astonishing, the bookshelves lining two walls, filled to capacity with books. There was a flat screen TV with an old DVD player connected to it, as well as a PlayStation 2 that looked like it was on its last legs, remote control with a frayed cable included. Calum took it all in, the way it smelled of lemons and cherries and something else, something purely Luke. He turned to face the taller boy who was still standing by the door, enormous hands clasped tightly in front of his stomach as he waited for a reaction.

“It’s great, Luke. Looks like you have a wonderful setup to keep you entertained here!” He said, hoping Luke grasped how genuine he was being. A shy grin came across his face, confirming what Calum was thinking.

“Thank you, Cal. I’m glad you think so, considering you’re the first person who has ever been in here other than myself and my mother,” he responded with a shrug. A pang of sadness struck Calum’s heart at that.

“Luke…” he started, not getting any farther before Luke interrupted.

“No no,” he tutted, “it’s okay! I’m glad it’s you and no one else.”

Calum gulped. He stood there awkwardly for a moment before Luke jumped, moving towards his bed. He sat and patted the space beside himself.

“Here, come sit!”

Calum did as he was told, leaving only a few inches of space between their bodies. He was close enough to feel Luke’s warmth radiating from his marble white skin. He watched as Luke began rambling about something he had read online recently but Calum couldn’t focus. He wanted to tell Luke about what he had discovered the night before. Luke had been talking for a hot minute before Calum blurted out his words.

“Luke, I have to tell you something.”

Luke looked momentarily taken aback but quickly recovered, turning in place to face Calum.

“What’s up, Cally?” he asked, a taste of worry in his voice.

“Something happened last night, after we stopped talking,” he mumbled. 

Luke looked officially worried at that, grabbing one of Calum’s hands in his slightly larger ones. 

“What is it, Calum? You’re starting to worry me,” he said, biting at his lower lip as he did.

Calum shook his head, using his free hand to enclose Luke’s. He wanted to ease his concern, not liking the way Luke’s forehead creased with trouble. 

“It’s nothing bad. It’s just, after I explained how I was feeling, I started feeling something else. I wanted to be sure, was hoping you could explain it to me.”

“Go on.”

“Luke, I think… I think I’m a Hopeful.”


	11. Chapter 11

Luke thinks that this is what it would feel like if the world stopped spinning.

For a split second, everything feels off. His breath hitched, his heart stopped in his chest. 

And then it restarted in the most glorious way. 

Calum was a Hopeful. He was no longer a lost cause. Maybe there would be a way to restore the happiness in him, a way for him to feel everything Luke did. 

“What… what changed?” Luke whispered, gripping Calum’s hand tightly.

“It’s not so much what changed me as it is who changed me,” Calum murmured, looking up slowly at Luke. 

_I can’t believe this is happening_ , Luke thought to himself. 

If someone had told Luke a month ago that… Well, that’s the thing. No one would’ve told Luke anything because nobody even knew he existed. Now he was sat with a wonderful boy that wanted to be happy like he was. He had no idea if it was even possible, but there was one thing he knew he could try.

“Do you know anything about Disney princesses, Cal?”

“Huh?”

“Disney princesses. The Sleeping Beauty, for example. She was the daughter of a king and she was cursed as a baby. When she made it to 16, she fell into a deep slumber that nothing would be able to break. But one thing did. Do you know what that one thing was?” Luke questioned. Calum stared at him, his lips set in a hard line as he shook his head.

“True love’s kiss, Cally. That’s all it took for Aurora to come back to life.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah…” 

“Do you love me, Luke?” Calum asked. 

Luke scoffed. 

“That’s a stupid question, Cal. Of course I love you. I may not know anybody else but I am one hundred percent sure that no one in the world could make me feel the way you do,” Luke said with all the conviction he could muster, wanting to make sure Calum at least felt how sincere his words were. He could see the fire in Calum’s eyes now, small but present. 

“If I could, I would love you too, Luke. I feel this determination from deep within to just make you smile, to make you happy. Knowing that you’re happier since you met me means the world to me,” Calum responded. 

Luke knew Calum meant that, so he was going to give his one idea a shot. 

“Stand up, Cal. Here, give me your hand,” he ordered, standing and pulling Calum along with him. He moved to the center of the room and turned, stopping in front of Calum. He grabbed Calum’s other hand as well, holding them both and staring right into his eyes. Calum looked at him in confusion, head cocked to the side. Luke cleared his throat, incredibly nervous at what he was about to try.

“For the way you managed to invade my every thought in such a short time,” he mumbled, pressing a soft kiss to Calum’s forehead. The other boy looked startled, Luke quickly hushing him before he could open his mouth and speak.

“For the way you always have just the right thing to say,” he continued, landing a kiss on Calum’s right cheek.

“For the way you didn’t run that day at the park and still haven’t left,” he spoke into Calum’s ear before kissing his left cheek. 

“For your lack of distaste, which is the only emotion people have ever associated with me. You don’t look down on me and I’m forever thankful for that,” he added, leaving a kiss on his chin. 

“For the way you center me and for the way you are my center, allowing me to revolve around you every single day,” he said, placing a small peck on Calum’s nose and smiling when the latter scrunched up his nose in an adorable manner.

“And for the way you let me in and let me love you so wholeheartedly,” he whispered, finally leaning in to press his lips against Calum’s, heart stuttering at the little gasp that left the other’s mouth. He moved slowly, following his heart as he experienced his first kiss with this marvelous boy. At first he was nervous that he was doing it wrong, seeing as Calum wasn’t exactly reacting to it. But after a few moments, Luke felt Calum’s hands drop his and instead cup his face, tilting it slightly as he deepened the kiss. He took full control and it was Luke’s turn to sigh, allowing himself to melt in Calum’s grasp.

Luke never could’ve imagined a first kiss more perfect than this. Movies and books did the sensation no justice whatsoever.   



	12. Chapter 12

Calum knew what fireworks were by definition. He had seen them in the background of pictures and movie scenes, had read about how magical they were to children and adults alike. 

There were fireworks in his chest just now.

When Luke began pressing kisses to his face, he felt the small hopeful flame in his chest begin to roar. It grew steadily every time Luke’s soft lips made contact with his skin. The second their lips met, however, was like a match being struck. Suddenly, he could feel everything. A firework being lit, a dam being broken, a blind man seeing light for the first time- there were a million ways to describe it but the simplest was love.

Calum felt love. 

He couldn’t help but gasp, completely overwhelmed at the sudden rush of emotion flooding his mind and heart. He felt Luke hesitate, and when he realized he wasn’t exactly kissing back, he gave in. Calum dropped Luke’s hands from between their bodies and instead reached for his face, cupping his stubbly cheeks and guiding his head slightly to the right to deepen the kiss. He heard Luke let out a small sigh and Calum couldn’t help but smile, in absolute awe at the way this wonderfully odd young man had just broken some sort of barrier within him, had stumbled into his life and finally showed him everything he had been missing before. 

Luke made Calum feel love. 

After a few minutes for kissing, Calum finally pulled back, but only far enough to press his forehead against Luke’s while they both caught their breath.

“Holy shit,” Calum whispered. He saw Luke’s eyes open at that, curiously gazing into his eyes.

“What is it, Cal?”

“It’s… it’s love, isn’t it? The rush that overcame me,” he asked. Luke pulled back immediately, shock evident on his face.

“What? You felt something?” Luke said, not answering Calum’s questions.

“Yes. It was like there had been some sort of invisible barrier in my mind and chest, something holding me back from feeling anything. But when you kissed me, it disappeared. I felt light, I felt joy. I feel love for you, Luke. So, so much love,” Calum rushed. He watched Luke’s eyes fill with tears as his bottom lip began to quiver. Calum frowned as Luke sniffled, small gasps escaping his partially opened mouth.

“Uhm, Luke? What’s wrong?” he asked worriedly.

“I just- I can’t believe it. You really felt it?” Luke responded, stuttering at the beginning like he his moth couldn’t keep up with his thoughts. 

Calum smiled softly, stepping forward again to grab Luke’s hands. He lifted one, maintaining eye contact with the beautiful boy in front of him as he pressed a gentle kiss to his knuckles. 

“Not felt, Lukey. Feel. I can feel love for you coursing through my veins, sweetheart,” he muttered softly. 

Luke sobbed at that, completely losing his composure. Calum pulled him into his arms, holding him tightly as he made calming shushing noises in his ear. He swayed them in place, letting Luke cry quietly into his neck. 

“I love you, Calum,” Luke cried. Calum nodded, pressing his lips to Luke’s temple as he replied. 

“I love you, Luke. I owe it all to you, and I love you with everything.”


	13. Chapter 13

It had been a week since their first kiss and Luke physically could not get enough of Calum. Every single evening, Luke waited by his bedroom door for the house to quiet. Once he knew his parents and brother were asleep, he let Calum know, who then proceeded to make his way over. Luke tiptoed downstairs to let him in and the two of them rushed back up to his room, where they spent the night tangled in Luke’s bedsheets, sharing secrets, kisses, touches. 

They shared everything because they were in love. 

They had seven days of pure bliss before things were shot to hell.

Luke woke up to his mother screaming. Before he could even open his eyes, he realized she wasn’t yelling from the bottom of the stairs. 

“LUKE ROBERT HEMMINGS, WHAT IN GOD’S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”

His eyes shot open to find his mother standing in front of him, fists balled up and pressed to her sides. He tugged his duvet up quickly, covering his bare chest as he did his best to shield Calum, who was pressed tightly to his back, from his mother’s view. He felt the boy behind him begin to stir, face snuggling closer to Luke’s shoulder, refusing to wake up. Without breaking eye contact with his clearly furious mother, he turned his head slightly to whisper in Calum’s ear. 

“Turn around, baby. Face the wall, yeah?” he mumbled, quiet enough for his mother not to hear. Calum hummed in response, rolling over and hiding his face in the pillow they were sharing. Luke stood up, covering Calum all the way to his ears with the blanket so that his mother couldn’t see him. He bent down to grab his t-shirt from the floor, pulling it on as he walked to his bedroom door. He stepped into the hallway and waited for his mother to follow him before closing the door behind them. 

“Luke, who the hell is that man and what is he doing in your room?” his mother hissed, practically fuming. Luke ran his hands through his hair, breathing deeply as he thought about how to respond.

“That’s… that’s my boyfriend, mom.”

His mother exhaled sharply, face pinching in… disgust? Distaste, if anything, Luke could tell.

“Your what?”

“My boyfriend, mom. You know, romantic partner, person I love and want to spend my life with?” He huffed. 

“You can’t have a boyfriend, Luke. How did you even meet this man? How many times have you seen him? And why the hell is he inside our house?” she responded angrily.

“Why can’t I, because you don’t want me to be happy or because you don’t want me to be happy with a boy?” Luke challenged, feeling anger boil in his blood. His mom’s furious expression relaxed a bit at that comment, but she was still very obviously annoyed with him.

“Luke, I- I don’t care if you like men. I just don’t understand how or why this one is inside our house,” she said with a defeated sigh. Luke felt the fight escape him as well. He knew his mother didn’t love him, but she had never been particularly mean to him. In fact, hiding him away was her own way of keeping him safe. It wasn’t love, but it was her motherly instinct to protect him. He leaned back against the wall and slid down until he was sat on the ground, looking up at his mother and patting the space next to him hopefully. She stared down at him for a minute before sitting down with another sigh. He turned to face her and began speaking.

“When you went shopping at the beginning of last month, I went outside. I wanted to-“

“Luke Robert Hem-“

“Mom, will you let me speak, please?” Luke said, slamming his fist on the ground. She pursed her lips at him in anger but stayed silent, allowing him to continue.

“I wanted to see the world, mom. I understand why you kept me hidden away all this time, really. I know you were trying to protect me because I’m an abnormality in this life but damn it, I deserve to be happy. So I went to the park, and that’s where I found him. Well, he found me, really. Calum’s his name, mom, and he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. He’s sweet and funny and kind, and he loves me,” Luke ended his rant there, suddenly too choked up to speak without letting tears fall down his face. His mother looked at him with confusion written all over his face.

“He’s a Happy?” she asked.

“He is now,” Luke said with a shrug. His mother lifted an eyebrow at that.

“What do you mean now, Luke?”

“He was an Affected when I met him, mum. He didn’t believe me when I told him I was a Happy at first, said there was no such thing anymore. I explained to him that I was diagnosed as a child and had been hidden away all this time. We exchanged numbers and got to talking. A week ago, something changed in him. He woke up a Hopeful, and that day when you all left the house to shop again, he came over. He told me how he was feeling and I, uh…” he drifted off, suddenly embarrassed to be telling his mother about his first kiss. 

“You what, Luke?”

“I kissed him, mummy,” Luke whispered, dropping his gaze to avoid whatever look his mother gave him.

“Oh. What was that like?” she asked. He looked back up to see nothing but sincere curiosity shining in her eyes.

“It was marvelous. It was the best thing I’ve ever felt, and when it was over, he said he felt it too. I don’t understand what happened, mom, but he’s a Happy now. He laughs, he smiles, he loves, and it’s all genuine. I can see how real it is every time he looks at me,” Luke replied, lifting his hand to wipe a stray tear from his right eye. His mother nodded, pulling at her lower lip as she took in what her son was saying.

“Like a fairy tale, huh,” she said. Luke nodded eagerly, smiling a little at the woman who gave him this odd life he led.

“Like a fairy tale, mum. Calum is my prince charming, I know.”

“Your dad was mine, you know? I loved him more than anything for a long time, until Ben was born. And suddenly that love multiplied, and it did so again when Jack was born. I wish- I wish I was able to feel the same for you, Luke. I know your life hasn’t been easy, all alone up here. But I felt so ashamed when I found out you were a Happy, ashamed at _myself_ for not being able to give you the same love your brothers got to enjoy for a while before The Virus spread and we all caught The Sickness. So I locked you away, to keep you safe but also to avoid the hatred I felt towards myself. I’m sorry you had to go this long without sharing your love and light with someone else, Lukey,” she whispered, tears pooling in her eyes as well. Luke sniffled, nodding in understanding. 

He couldn’t exactly relate, because he had been born a Happy. He had always been this joyful little thing, even when he didn’t have anybody to be happy with. But to have been like him and then have it torn away, like his poor mother and the rest of the world, it had to be incredibly tough. His mother had dealt with his situation the wrong way, but she had done the best she could. He was contemplating all of this, sitting in silence next to him mom, when his bedroom door cracked slightly open, Calum poking his head out to peer down at them. His eyes went wide when he saw Luke’s mom and he was about to shut the door again when she spoke up. 

“Hi, Calum, is it? Come out here, join us on the floor,” she said. Calum immediately did as he was told, stepping into the hallway and sitting down next to Luke, leaving him as a barrier between his mom and himself.


	14. Chapter 14

Calum sat awkwardly as Luke’s mom stared at him, studying his face quietly. She looked him up and down once before sticking her hand out in his direction.

“I’m Liz, Luke’s mom. It’s nice to meet you,” she said matter-of-factly. Calum shook her hand quickly, biting his lip shyly as he maintained her intense eye contact. 

“Sorry if my shouting startled you this morning,” she apologized, “I just wasn’t expecting to find my son in bed with another man. Well, with anyone, really.”

“Shouting? I didn’t hear anything,” Calum replied with a small smile. “I’m the world’s heaviest sleeper, I think.” 

Luke snorted before adding, “Yeah, you are. Nothing wakes you, does it, darling?”

Calum blushed, acutely aware of how odd it must’ve been for Liz to see her son in love with another Happy after going so long under the impression that Luke was one of a kind. 

“That’s because you haven’t seen your father sleep, Lucas. The man could sleep besides railroad tracks and he wouldn’t even flinch,” Liz said, eliciting a giggle from both boys. She nodded and continued speaking. “That was funny, wasn’t it? It does nothing for me anymore, but I used to be quite the jokester.”

Calum watched as the tip of Luke’s pink tongue poked between his teeth, a silly little habit that Calum adored about his boyfriend. 

“It was funny, mum,” Luke grinned, Calum nodding in approval along with him. They sat in silence for a moment longer before Liz stood, brushing dust from the seat of her pants.

“Well, Calum, would you like to join us for breakfast?” 

Calum heard Luke gasp beside him, and he turned to look at him as he stared up at his mother.

“You mean-“

“Put some decent clothes on, Lucas, and both of you come join us at the kitchen table,” she said with a nonchalant shrug and a ruffle of his hair, turning to head down the stairs. Calum watched her disappear, distracted only by the shaky breath Luke let out. He turned to look at his boyfriend, who was looking a bit pale. When he didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything to move from the floor, Calum spoke up.

“Baby? What’s wrong?” Calum asked, gently nudging Luke’s shoulder with his own. Luke turned to face him, small tears visible in the corners of his eyes.

“I haven’t been allowed to eat at the table since I was five, Cally. I have all my meals up here, every single day. She wants us to eat with the rest of the family,” he sniffled. Calum gave him a sad smile, leaning forward to leave a small kiss on Luke’s forehead.

“Well then we shouldn’t waste any time, should we, sweet thing? C’mon, let’s go get you dressed,” Calum responded, standing up and pulling Luke to his feet. They walked into his room, Calum sitting down on Luke’s bed and watching as his boyfriend dug through his closet, looking for something to wear. He settled on grey sweatpants, bless his soul, and a soft, navy blue t-shirt that looked amazing on his broad shoulders. He combed his messy curls as best as he could, deciding to cover them with a beanie the same shade of grey as his pants. Calum whistled, smiling as he saw the blush that instantly covered Luke’s cheeks. He walked to where Luke was stood in front of his full body mirror, wrapping his arms around him from behind and resting his chin on Luke’s shoulder. He smiled at the sight of them, fascinated with the light in Luke’s eyes as he stared back at him. 

“My precious boy, look at you. I’m so thankful you’re mine,” he whispered into Luke’s ear, lightly biting his shoulder when he saw the way Luke shivered. Luke squeaked, turning in place to face Calum, still wrapped in his arms.

“Calum Thomas Hood, do not bite me. You know what that does to me!” he scolded playfully, leaning forward to give Calum a quick kiss and yeah, Calum was positive this was where he was meant to be forever.


	15. Epilogue Pt. 1

**_SEVEN YEARS LATER_ **

Luke was sitting on the living room couch, watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when he heard Calum shouting from the other room. 

“Luke, honey, come here! Look at the mess your son made!”

Luke sighed, pressing pause on the film and making his way upstairs, following the sound of his husband and son’s giggles and finding them both on the floor of Gil’s room, which was…

Well, a mess. 

The previously white walls were splattered with different colors of paint, red, blue, yellow, and green streaks covering them haphazardly. Gil was sitting on Calum’s lap, both equally as messy as the walls, staring up at Luke with the same crinkly eyes as his other dad. He smiled wide, showing off the gap where his baby teeth were falling out and Luke all but melted at that. Nevertheless, he pretended to be angry, placing his hands at his hips and looking down at his son with a fake pout and scrunched eyebrows.

“What happened here, mister?”

“It was baba, daddy! We were finger paintin’, see?” he said, holding up a smudged canvas before continuing, “and he threw paint on me! I had to fight back, daddy!” 

Luke turned his gaze on Calum.

“Is that true, love?” 

Calum bit his lower lip, playfully looking anywhere but at Luke. 

“Well…” 

Luke sighed again, sitting down in front of his son and husband. He picked up the nearly empty bottle of lilac paint, turning it slowly in his hands. 

“You started a paint war without me, boys?” he asked, dipping his long index finger inside the bottle and scooping out a dollop of paint. He looked up and felt love flood his entire being at the way both his son and Calum were staring back at him, the same puppy dog expression on their faces. “That, my loves, is not…” 

He flicked the paint at them, smiling devilishly when they both howled with laughter.

“NICE!” he shouted, waving the bottle like a madman and watching the contents of the bottle fly everywhere, on him, his boys, the floor, the walls. Gil rolled off Calum’s lap, lunging forwards for the teal paint and beginning to throw it at Luke. It wasn’t long before Luke was covered in paint the way Gil and Calum were. When they tired out, the three of them laid back on the bedroom floor, Calum nuzzled into Luke’s side and Gil curled on top of his chest. He was still small enough to fit there comfortably, and Luke dreaded the day that his sweet boy was too big, or worse yet, too embarrassed to lay on his dad’s chest. 

Luckily, Luke knew of one boy who would always want to lay his head down by his heart.


	16. Epilogue Pt. 2

After they all cleaned up and had dinner, Calum joined his husband and son on the couch to finish watching the Harry Potter film Luke had been watching. He, too, had seen these movies hundreds of times thanks to Luke. He knew how much the other loved them, so after a bit of begging back when they were 25 and 23, Calum had watched the existing films and years later, the new ones.

Yes, new ones.

Something magical had happened three years ago, on the day that Gil had been born. 

Nearly four years into their relationship, shortly after getting married, Calum had walked in on Luke staring at pictures of babies on his laptop. He had stood behind him quietly and watched as Luke cooed at the screen every so often, smiling ridiculously bright at the images on the screen. He had cleared his throat and watched as Luke jumped in place, slamming his laptop shut and turning to face Calum with wide eyes. A long conversation had followed and by the end of the night, the newlyweds had gone to bed with the promise of a child joining their lives soon. 

They considered adoption but ultimately decided they wanted a child that was half them and half of a surrogate, so they began that process. Less than a year later, at 2:53 in the morning, they got a call from the hospital saying the surrogate was having contractions and that they should head over. Still in pajamas and with messy hair, the two of them had rushed over and arrived just in time to welcome their baby boy into the world.

The tiny thing had been born with tan skin like Calum and curly, light blonde hair like Luke, perfect pink lips pursed when his eyes opened. Beautiful blue just like his daddy, Calum had thought. He looked over at Luke, smiling when he saw the tears streaming down his face as he stared at their son, hands pressed to the glass of the nursery room window. He had grabbed Luke’s hand and pulled him in close, wrapping him up in his arms and crying softly with him. Their angel was finally with them. As they stood there, crying happy tears, their baby smiled up at the ceiling. Luke had gasped in awe, but Calum wasn’t surprised. There was no way their child, having been made with nothing but pure, unadulterated love, would be born anything other than a Happy. 

Picking his name was not hard.

Gil meant joy in Hebrew. 

Life with Gil was wonderful. The first time he laughed, Luke had sobbed for hours, mumbling unintelligible praise through his tears at their perfect son. Calum had laughed with him. As Gil grew older, Calum and Luke decided they would share him with the entire world. After the life Luke had lived, punished for being happy, they knew Gil deserved to know everyone and everything. 

One day, while Calum and Luke were taking a stroll through the park with Gil in his baby buggy, they came across another couple with an infant that looked close in age to their son, so they approached them to make friendly conversation. While Luke gushed over the other baby with its mother, Calum held Gil, squishing his cheeks and making faces at him. Gil giggled, and Calum watched as the other couple looked up in alarm at the sound. Luke was about to explain to them their situation when the most incredible thing happened. 

The other baby took one look at Gil and giggled as well. 

All four parents nearly passed out at that.

Somehow, Gil’s happiness was contagious. It affected children first, babies and kids at parks and shopping malls laughing and smiling whenever they interacted with him. Then, those children passed it on to their parents, who then transferred it to family members, neighbors, strangers, anyone else who didn’t have a child living with them. 

The phenomenon took everyone by storm. It was like a chain reaction of happiness, started by Calum and Luke’s unknowing little angel. By the time Gil was three, there were no more Affected people in the world. Studies were done but doctors were at a loss for explanation, just as baffled as the rest of the population as to how a single child had infected the entire world with pure joy.

Again, this was no surprise to Calum. It made perfect sense to him that their child was the key to happiness being restored. He had never voiced his thoughts out loud because he didn’t want to upset Luke, but he knew that if the latter had been let out into the world as a child, he would’ve had the same effect on people that Gil did. Gil, as wonderful as he was, was not the miracle. He was a given, born   
into love out of the love shared between his fathers.

No, the miracle was Luke. 

Luke, who could make birds sing with his laugh, who could make stars fall from the heavens with just a smile, whose blue eyes could challenge the beauty of the skies and the seas. 

Luke, the beautiful soul who had the power to make anybody happy, had chosen Calum. Calum was the luckiest person alive, the first Affected to be cured of The Sickness that had ruined so many lives. Calum had been saved by the sweet weirdo from the park, and every day he thanked the angels that got together to make Luke the day he had been born. 

Luke was pure magic, and with just his sweet determination, he had changed the entire world for the better. 

Luke loved the world and Calum loved Luke, his world.


End file.
